Friday, May 16, 2008

The European Nose

1895

An Austrian scientist has been attacking the European nose. He says that it is a miserable, degraded organ and a disgrace to civilization. He admires the large, full nostrils of the negro and says that it is the sort of nose to have. That is the nose that can smell. The nose of Europe cannot smell. Its olfactory sense is gone. The London nose could never snuff the London atmosphere, nor, he might have added, the much more complicated odors of cologne. He attributes this degeneration to cigarette smoking and to life in crowds. — St. Louis Post-Dispatch.


Sydney Smith's Wit

"By Jove!" said a country squire who had got the worst of an argument with Sydney Smith, "if I had a son who was a donkey, I'd make a parson of him straight away."
"Possibly," returned the wit, "but your father was evidently of a different mind."

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